Ryan Lorimar and Jessica Werner have a special gift: they can see ‘fallen angel’ apparitions within other people. But as the fallen angels in turn know that they’ve been ‘viewed’, it’s a gift that will get him killed. They need protection. They need to enter ‘Blind School.’

Their only hope is Ellis Kendell and his team of agents. Day in, day out, Kendell’s team trawl through street-cam images from across the nation to pick up that tell-tale eye light-refraction of ‘viewers’. Can Kendell’s team get to the viewers before the fallen angels and get them to safety in ‘Blind School’? But there’s also an added agenda: Kendell’s department want the ‘viewers’ help in tracking down more ‘fallen angels.’

Yet is Kendell deluding himself? Setting this small group of teens against a legion fifty-times their number of the most cunning and vicious murderers and criminal masterminds the nation has to offer – is he simply throwing them to the wolves? Fated to watch them one-by-one die. The odds are against them.The Review

'Blind School' literally explodes into action with a shock event. Within pages, schoolboy Ryan sees a swirling apparition in a girl set upon this evil intent. Such swirling entities are ‘fallen angels,’ half-angel but half-demon, and seemingly terrible to behold. Fallen angels - of which there are hundreds of different kinds, of varying levels of malevolence – take possession of their human hosts, causing mischief to downright malice.

From the word go I was fascinated by these apparitions, causing me to turn the pages into the dark hours of the night. I bought into this idea to the point where I felt almost sorry for the ‘victim’ of a fallen angel – having been a puppet to the demonic apparition. I found it quite sad to think that the human host is often left to rot in jail, their fallen angel having by then ‘jumped ship.’ I didn’t, however, feel sorry for villain Lyle, written as he was as a vile and sickening man, committing the worst of sins and making reality of most people’s worst nightmare. Matthews brings an element of horror to the story in Lyle and his chilling cherry tree orchard, where he buries young girls alive.

Matthews’ characters are believable and realistic. Ellis Kendell, head of secret operations to hunt down and ‘contain’ the apparitions, is a driven and focused man, but also jaded by his inability to win each fight. Lusting teenager Ryan is overcome by fury when his girlfriend is threatened. Jessica, said girlfriend, is strong and capable, showing spirited defiance when all seems lost.

The only time my suspension of disbelief failed me, throughout the entire novel, was in the fact that dozens of teens were suddenly developing hemeralopia and going about in identical sunglasses, although some Internet research assured me that wearing them does in fact help manage the condition. The book's demonology is detailed, and cleverly presented to the reader via the School teachings, as to be totally believable.

‘Blind School’ is an awesome fast-paced easy read, with flowing narrative and concise description. This book is listed as YA, and according to Wikipedia, I’m almost some 10 years above the genre’s top cut-off age, but I enjoyed this book. I enjoyed this book so much that I only wished, strangely, that it were fact, not fiction. It made me think quite deeply about the sometimes horrific world around me, and that if only Matthews’ ‘fallen angels’ were responsible for human monstrosities, then, in a funny way, the world might be an easier place in which to live.